Believe it or not, the world-famous Scrabble board game was invented by an unemployed architect. During the Great Depression, Alfred Mosher Butts, like many Americans, was desperately looking for work. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t find work, and to pass the time, he designed a game that needed the language abilities learned from anagrams and crossword puzzles while also incorporating a chance aspect. Butts designed the board game as we know it today and called it “Lexiko.”
Despite his continued efforts, he was unsuccessful in his attempts to market the game to manufacturers. The game went through several name changes before settling on its now-famous moniker. From “Lexiko,” Alfred Mosher Butts renamed it "Criss-Cross Words." It was Butt's friend James Brunot who came up with the name "Scrabble," but it wasn't until the 1950s that the game started becoming popular when Macy's began selling it. By 1954, Scrabble was available in the United Kingdom. The board game is now sold in more than thirty languages and in more than a hundred countries. Scrabble is regarded as the second-best board game in American history and was inducted into the American National Toy Hall of fame in 2004, joining the ranks of Monopoly and Lego.
Most of you have played scrabble before, but have you tried our ADDER Word Dice Game? It's the next cranial challenge for anyone who loves Scrabble but wants something more challenging. These are great for promoting a variety of events and are perfect for customers who love testing their vocabulary. Make every word count with this dice game!